Tune in today, September 14th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive

The future will be fought on TikTok. Remember when those on the platform, completely off the radar screen, claimed all those tickets for Trump in Oklahoma last summer and didn’t show up? Not a single person in the mainstream media knew it was coming, none of them wrote about it, the intelligentsia WAS OUT TO LUNCH! Left or right, didn’t matter, they were clueless.

This morning I was on Twitter. It’s part of my routine. I want to see what is going on. And I found this TikTok clip:

https://twitter.com/GabrielaDow/status/1437111653892386818?s=20

I don’t follow Gaby Dow, as a matter of fact, prior to today I had no idea who she even was. But someone I do follow retweeted Gaby and I was hipped to the clip. And I watched it and was stunned.

And then I had to go to the TikTok page of @hill_deeee

She’s got 236.5k followers. Think about that. Every day I hear from musicians telling me Spotify is the devil. I want to write for the umpteenth time the real problem is with the major labels, but just like the unvaxxed these musicians don’t want to hear it. And, these complainers are doing the exact opposite of what Hillary, aka “hill_deeee,” is doing. Hillary is starting from the bottom up. She’s in Michigan, not L.A. or New York, today you can start where you are. She’s not begging for traction, she’s just posting her videos and they’re generating views. And why are Hillary’s clips getting views? BECAUSE SHE’S PASSIONATE! AND UNAFRAID OF PISSING ANYBODY OFF!

Passion…that’s the essence of great art. You can feel it. When you create a track brick by brick, with umpteen writers, you’re not selling passion, it’s been squeezed out. Ditto when you aim for perfection. Passion is lightning in a bottle. It’s a moment in time. When someone is so caught up in something that they nearly burst at the seams when they deliver it. Back in the days of two track recordings passion was rampant. In today’s world of unlimited tracks it’s mostly absent.

And when someone is passionate it’s contagious. We stop, we look, we pay attention, and we want more. That’s the hook most musicians are unaware of. Getting someone’s attention is nearly impossible, BUT HOW DO YOU KEEP IT! You’ve got to be so damn good that people want more. I certainly wanted more so I watched more of Hillary’s videos.

And her story came clear.

Her father died of Covid. She’s speaking from experience.

And she’s got kids.

And, as she says, she’s really good at math.

And when Hillary does the math, she delivers the message better than any major media outlet extant. She delivers the message better than Fauci or  Biden. Because SHE CARES! She’s not just reading the news, she’s selling the news. Angry at those who won’t get the shot. But she’s not fighting them with opinion but raw numbers, and after you watch Hillary’s presentation…you’ll see your odds of getting infected and dying in a whole new way, it will become real to you, very real.

And that’s why TikTok is triumphant.

Today’s other story is in the “Los Angeles Times”: 

“Can’t get that dang Applebee’s song out of your head? How ‘Fancy Like’ took over TikTok and TV”: https://lat.ms/3Abvs47

Walker Hayes couldn’t get arrested. He’s 41, with six kids. But he posted a clip of himself and a daughter dancing to his new song on TikTok and now he’s got a number one country record, that appears to be crossing over to pop. And it’s not like the guy’s that good looking, he’s not playing the game, HE’S INVENTING THE GAME! Well, TikTok invented the game, the platform, but Hayes used the tools to create something people wanted to see. And it grew. Forget bitching about streaming payouts, about major label deals, Walker Hayes did it all by himself, on TikTok.

But it’s not only left wingers and musicians, it’s right wingers too. I’ll post an e-mail I received re this at the end of this screed.

But the power is in the hands of the proletariat. And of course the powers-that-be don’t like it, this challenges their underpinnings, their whole way of life. They came to understand physical disruption, disruption via desirable existing products, like songs, aka Napster, but the concept of nobodies from nowhere using the tools to get their message out, having more power than the mainstreamers…IT’S ANATHEMA! So they don’t even cover it.

So Hillary takes a stand.

And what happens? SHE GETS HATERS! But does she cry in her beer like a politician, no, she adjusts and keeps playing, she knows it goes with the territory. This is the message, informing people of the facts so they will get vaccinated. She’s not reporting on something else tomorrow, she’s on this kick, because it’s just that damn important.

Nobody likes to get disrupted. Which is why they bury their heads in the sand. As soon as you bitch about Spotify I ignore you, you’re obviously out of touch, you not only don’t know how Spotify works, you don’t even know how the internet works! You’re narrowly focused on recorded music revenue when there are so many new opportunities out there. Furthermore, if someone wants your recordings don’t sign to a label, don’t give up the majority of the hopefully resulting monies, but you’re too scared to go it alone, you think you need the label which won’t deliver for you anyway.

Will TikTok be powerful next year?

What do we know, these social media platforms are fads. If you’re still on Facebook not only were you born in the twentieth century, you probably graduated from high school long before you bought a computer. The target keeps moving. It’s the entertainment of the younger generation. Which is why traditional TV ratings are so damn low, people would rather participate than watch television passively. We keep hearing how lame the younger generation is but I would say just the opposite, they’re grabbing hold of the tools and twisting them to their advantage. As for all those acts that didn’t want to be on the iTunes Store, didn’t want to be on Spotify, don’t want to allow the hoi polloi to make videos with their music on YouTube, you’re killing your career. The greatest thing that could happen to you is someone latching on to your song on TikTok!

So watch Hillary’s video. I don’t care if you’re vaxxed or not, are focused on vaccination or not, this is star material, far superior than the dreck on the VMAs. Everybody knows that real talent doesn’t sell out, that it exists outside the system. Who knows, Hillary might ultimately sell out, she might never get any more traction but know that the world is full of Hillarys. Yes, it turned out there wasn’t a ton of hidden talent that the music industry was unaware of, the internet didn’t surface a cornucopia of great newbies. But the truth is innovation, the art form, is different on the internet. That’s the story. Don’t be constrained by the box. Think of the possibilities.

_________________________________

From: Michael Patterson

Re: Vaccine Mandates

First, I’m vaccinated and voted for Biden. I say this because the links below are very much not from people who are vaccinated or voted for Biden. My friends freak out when they see these because they live in an echo chamber like most people on one side of the political or the other. I’ve been saying Tik Tok is the social media place to be for two years the last three years. Twitter is where intelligent and funny people hang out. FB and IG are for the older adults. Those platforms have shut down the voices on the right. Doing so has cut off my fellow blue staters from really seeing what those on the right are saying. The people on the right have gone to Tik Tok, and no one seems to notice. It’s the perfect format for them. They don’t need to write well. They have to look at their phone and tell their story. There is a war brewing in America, and most of you are not aware it’s happening. On FB, we read a post by a nurse about not taking the vaccine and wonder if she will lose her job. On Tik Tok we see the nurse sitting in her car crying because she is not taking the vaccine and will lose her job. She screams out, asking who is going to save her. The response to a woman like this on FB is people posting words in support of her. On Tik Tok, it’s 150 duet videos of men loading Ammo into their guns, saying they will protect her. A video like that would have 300k likes.

Another video explains how you will know which regiment you are in in the coming civil war based on the order your state entered the Union. If you lived in California would be in the 31st Regiment.  There are hundreds of these, and they each have 3k—100k likes.

Thousands of videos about military strategy and prepping. All of them with the stated theme that war is coming and we would rather die than be forced to take the vaccine.

Take a look at some of the examples below.

This is America.

They went wild on Tik Tok during the Afghanistan withdrawal. Thousands of soldiers, getting millions of likes, said they were done with this administration and it was time to take back American by any means necessary.

I believe TikTok to be a fantastic platform and the best thing that has happened to the music business in a long time. Still, I….and I can’t believe I’m saying this because it agrees with the Trump Administration…believe the platform is a danger to America and should be banned from the states. When you dive deep into what’s happening on Tik Tok, you will understand how much control China has over the minds of more than half of the population, and it would be effortless for them to light the fuse to the dynamite that is the right by slightly adjusting the algorithms.

Also, in the last week or two, the unvaccinated “patriots” have started to call themselves “Pure Bloods” which is a Harry Potter reference.

Crazy.

Here is what 10 minutes of scrolling on Tik Tok put in front of me after only searching the hashtag “patriot” and seeing what the algorithm put in front of me next. This is not even the crazy and serious stuff. It’s not just white people in the South. It’s all colors and races.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRag9Ghw/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRaCdRtW/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRm7oyDN/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRagVxR7/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRm3hGPK/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRu4b8VT/

ps://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRuXGXR7/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRu4jseq/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRuXvLGn/

@ollierighteous

Time is of the essence. #survivaltips #artofwar #genz #apocalypse #prepper #doomsday #griddown #survivalskills #preppers #hunkerdown #homestead

♬ original sound – Ollie Righteous

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRuXfbCy/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRuXoSD4/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRu4f7uy/

I’ve never done this before, but feedback has been so positive I wanted to give you a heads-up in case you thought you weren’t interested and didn’t listen: 

Bob-Of all your podcasts,that wasn’t in the top 10 best —It was the ENTIRE TOP 10. Finally, a non-druggie, non-whiner, intelligent, articulate, truthful, singer/songwriter, musician.

I learned a lot.

Thank You!

That was one of the most entertaining interviews ever! Paul Anka’s heyday was well before my time, and I assumed if he were still alive (I didn’t even know!) he’d be a stodgy “These kids today…” kind of guy, but he was nothing like that! Instead he was open-minded and hip to what’s happening now AND he knew the Beatles and Buddy Holly!

On the one to ten scale that was a twelve.

Fantastic. I have a whole new level of respect and perspective on him.

this was a great interview Bob. $10 to $15 mill of the tonight show …. UNREAL

Paul Anka is an incredibly successful songwriter from mostly well before my (and your time), but you’ll know the songs he wrote (including Sinatra’s “My Way”). Here’s a fantastic new podcast with him– great stories & talk about the songwriting process:

Wow, who knew mister Having My Baby would be so interesting. Your best podcast since Bob Ezrin

______________________________

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/paul-anka-86672109

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/paul-anka/id1316200737?i=1000534794868

This is what America voted for. This is what America WANTS!

For far too long politicians have been afraid of their constituencies. And you can’t win a battle on fear. Rather than doing what is right, they’ve focused on doing nothing, to the point where people dismiss D.C. as a gridlocked backwater. And then a President comes along and leads and everybody is shocked, positively shocked I tell you!

The truth is gerrymandering has helped the Republicans win elections, but it has also made them beholden to the extreme right in their own party, to the point where the party majordomos have lost control. It used to be simple, talk low taxes, government waste and trickle down economics, sprinkle in some religious and culture issues and voila, you’ve got a victory! But then the disenfranchised blue collar Democrats became Republicans and it was no longer about big business, but personal interests, and those in charge of the party have been flummoxed ever since. What do you do when the majority of your voters prefer national health care but you’ve got a vocal minority against it? You placate the minority, because otherwise you’ll be primaried. Like Abbott in Texas. He reluctantly instituted a mask mandate in 2020 and now he’s being run against by those further right, and we’ve seen time and again those further right tend to win, because they don’t cotton to sausage making, they don’t believe in compromise, they’re all about digging in their heels and refusing to budge. And therefore we’ve got one party in Congress whose entire agenda is just making sure the other party passes no legislation, makes no progress, and you end up with the majority frustrated, since Republicans are a distinct minority who as a result of the aforesaid gerrymandering and the Electoral College have punched way above their weight in representation for years. You can win yet lose, just ask Hillary Clinton.

But Biden won by a significant majority of the popular vote. Which was focused foremost on getting rid of Trump.

Trump… He ruled with an iron fist, willy-nilly, and despite protesting, the Democrats ultimately acquiesced and ate it. The Democrats fight twenty first century wars with twentieth century strategies. October 2nd there will be rallies in support of women’s reproductive rights. What will be the result? NOTHING! Come on, all that protesting during Trump’s tenure, did he listen to it, did any of the Republican elected officials listen to it and change their behavior? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Isn’t that the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?

And one thing is for sure, Trump bungled the Coronavirus. Reacting late if at all and proffering bogus medical solutions all the while. It’s one of the reasons he lost his job. And it was not only the failure to address Covid-19, but the concomitant crash of the economy.

Which worries Biden too.

I think Joe is most concerned with the citizenry, but not far behind is the economy. The more people go unvaxxed, the more the Delta variant rages, the more the economy sinks. Did you see the airlines are going back into the hole? Think about that, you bitched about all the money the government gave them and then the country opened up and they were flying profitably and now, because of people’s “freedom” and the resulting fear of those who are vaxxed to go anywhere, the airlines are tanking once again. But it’s not only the airlines, across the board business are faltering. But if the economy were up and running…

And the truth is despite states like Florida and Texas being open for business, they’re not bastions of 100% Republicans, they have sizable Democratic populations who refuse to leave their houses, who are scared of dying. Meanwhile, the unvaxxed aren’t afraid at all, despite having an eleven times more chance of passing from Covid-19 than those who’ve gotten the jab. Then again, fact are fungible, just ask Kellyanne Conway. If you close your eyes and pray you can make anything go away. And it doesn’t really hurt until it affects you personally.

So one thing the right has done is stack the courts. All the way from the bottom to the top. So, governors and other elected officials know that if you go to the Supreme Court, you’ve got a good chance of winning. Look, the Court punted on the Texas abortion law, allowing it go into effect.

But that’s not what Biden is banking on. It’s OSHA.

The Republican governors, never mind their constituencies, have no grounding in the law, they think everything can be brought to court and everything can be appealed when this is patently untrue. Not only does Biden have the right under OSHA, you can’t appeal every decision, you must have standing and a basis for that appeal. Just losing is not enough. There must have been an error in the trial court. Not that Americans know this, having watched too much prime time television, which the last time I checked was FICTION!

So Biden leads. I’d say he threw the long ball, but in truth he didn’t throw that far at all, he just decided to act.

Democrats aren’t supposed to do this, they’re supposed to be AFRAID! Of not only the Republicans but other Democrats. Commit a sexual faux pas as a Democrat and your party executes you. Do the same as a Republican and you’re still a member of the party, you still hold your office, almost no one even talks about Matt Gaetz anymore, he’s still in Congress. As for Al Franken, a Harvard educated comedian? He makes jokes and is sidelined, even though we need his intelligence and voice of reason in the Senate now more than ever.

So Biden wins the nomination. Seemingly everybody was surprised. It looked like he was down and out. And then he won the election, anybody but Trump, just ask all the Republicans who defected. And the right wing canard is he’s a senile old man beholden to the progressives and ultimately ineffective. But you can label someone all day long, but it comes down to what he DOES!

Biden got us out of Afghanistan. Something the majority of Americans wanted. The exit is akin to the Affordable Care Act. Fought over when it happens, embraced after it’s over. As for the execution of the exit, the more that comes out the better it looks. NATO just said the U.S. did tell its partners it was leaving Afghanistan, in April, it’s not like they were really surprised. But when the exit looked like a mess they wanted to disconnect from the U.S., to look good. We kept on hearing that the U.S. has lost its stature, its power, but you know the next time any of these allies are in trouble the first call is going to be to the American government. The U.S., Bush and Cheney, made a bad call. Subsequent presidents were afraid to make a bad call, so they just stayed there. And now Biden does the right thing. As for Trump…he said he was gonna do the right thing, but now that Biden executed the plan he flip-flopped, because that’s the rule of Republicans, whatever a Democrats says or does, just take the opposite side.

Like with vaccines. Trump supports them, delivers them, but then Administrations flip and vaccines are anathema.

And those Republicans saying we left too many people behind in Afghanistan, not only do they not want the refugees in the U.S., after all they’re immigrants, the scourge of our nation, it was just found out there’s been an outbreak of measles, and the Afghanis are being quarantined, unable to land in the States. Think about that, if they only got vaccinated there would be no issue. But don’t think too hard, because the logic employed by the right doesn’t make sense. And it is the right. No false equivalencies.

So kids must go to school, but they must not wear masks and vaccinations must not be required. What’s the end result? INFECTION! And kids are dying, teachers are infecting students. But in the name of freedom, the status quo must be maintained. Colleges in the north require vaccination, those in the south don’t, end result? INFECTION! For people who keep telling us they want to protect the children they seem to be doing a lousy job of it.

And it’s not like the elected officials testifying aren’t vaccinated, it’s not like Tucker Carlson and the rest of the bloviators are not vaccinated, as Biden stated on Thursday, a claim that has gone unchallenged, but they’re afraid of those beholden to rumors and false facts and on Fox they’re fanning these flames, because it’s the opposite opinion of the Democrats and they’re afraid of losing ground to outlets even further right, like Newsmax and OAN. To the point where Trump finally says to get the vaccine and he gets BOOED!

Yes, there were all these lines in the sand. That were going to make the reluctant get vaccinated. Frank Luntz said if Trump testified people would get the shot. Hmm…no. The media told us if the vaccine was approved by the FDA people’s fears would be alleviated and they’d get the jab. Hmm…no. They’re like the Democrats who believe protest can sway Abbott…NO WAY!

So what do you do when nothing soft works, you take action, you mandate. Which Biden has done.

And almost everyone is on his side. Not only the vaccinated, but the corporations, they were looking for leadership. It’s just the vocal minority and those beholden to them who are complaining. And didn’t we decide it was about elections, the majority as opposed to the one with the loudest voice? The Democrats have cowered previously but now Biden takes action and the right is shocked, positively shocked I tell you.

And why not get the jab?

Let’s be clear, the truth is almost everybody is afraid of needles. It’s just that simple. As for deleterious effects of vaccines, the intelligentsia, everybody the unvaxxed rely on, have gotten the shot. So if it’s really bad, if it kills you, the unvaxxed are going to have no one to rely on, no doctors, no techies, it’ll be like a “Twilight Zone” episode. God, why is everybody so afraid in America? I thought we were a can-do nation. We went to the moon, we invented the internet, never mind the smartphone, but when they tell us vaccines will save our lives, NO WAY! And it’s not like most people haven’t gotten a slew of vaccines already. It’s just that this one has become politicized.

This is what we wanted, leadership. This is what we voted for. We didn’t only want Trump gone, we wanted to be led out of the wilderness, we wanted order. And now we’ve got someone who’s giving it to us. HALLELUJAH!

As for Biden himself… I winced when I saw him reading from the teleprompter. Then again, at least he can read, unlike Trump. And why do we hold our elected officials to such high standards, when most people at home can’t read from the teleprompter. They’re just people. And the goal is to gather information, via committee, we don’t want isolated dictators, and make educated decisions. Biden does this but he’s laughable? Isn’t this what we want?

As for the attacks on Kamala Harris… Tell me again what a vice president should do? What did Pence do, other than bungle the handling of the coronavirus problem. VPs hang in the background and wait for the president to die. It’s just that simple. But since Harris is a DEMOCRAT, furthermore black and a woman, she deserves attack. Credit Harris, she’s seen and heard it before, she’s not bothering to respond, you never take the bait.

Then again, Biden is biting back. Not only is he calling out Republican officials, he’s standing his ground, like Republican John Wayne in a western. HAVE AT IT! He’s calling the right wing out. He’s not getting under the table and saying nothing. How come the right can call people out, taunt the left, but Democrats can’t do this? Huh punk!

And the truth is you’re on one side or the other. Nothing I write is going to change your mind and that’s not why I’m writing this. I’m writing this to set the scene, to tell you what is going on. It’s no different from the government tolerating protestors and then moving to evacuate them. Remember Occupy Wall Street? And after the protestors were gone, life went on. Which is what is going to happen here. People will get vaccinated and be happy about it. They will live, and ultimately that’s what it’s all about, no one wants to die for the cause, no one, especially when they don’t have to.

So the tide has turned. And you don’t want to go against it. Did you see that woman yelling at people wearing masks in the supermarket? The video went viral and SAP, her employer, fired her. Do you want to take that risk? And government subsidies are in most cases gone, so you don’t want to lose your job, no way. You might grumble, but you’ll get the shot.

And those reluctant to do so will become a member of an ever-shrinking group, they’ll be pariahs. Akin to soldiers left behind in Japan who were still fighting the war years on. It’s over, get in line, there’s no profit in staying behind, and the truth is your brethren will sell you out in an instant, they’ll tell you to go unvaxxed after they’ve gotten the shot, claiming their employer made them do it, or their spouse is immunocompromised. You do it, not me!

So Trump issues an edict and it stands, despite the blowback. But Biden isn’t entitled to do this? Furthermore, Biden is trying to save lives!

You might think the unvaxxed are a huge force, but the truth is their governors are puppets and they live in an echo chamber akin to a cult, where they never hear contrary information and if you go against the leader you’re excoriated.

America is about truth. And almost all of the information from the unvaxxed is not.

America is about justice. Majority rules. The safety of Americans is paramount.

And the American Way. Ever since World War II America has been the undisputed leader of the world. Not only in science, but the arts. America is the bleeding edge, which lifted up our entire populace. But now we’re so busy squabbling China is making headway. And Britain is even worse. The yahoos voted for Brexit and now not only is it almost impossible for musicians to tour the Continent, the shelves are bare because there aren’t enough truck drivers. Even worse, taxes had to be raised to fund the NHS, which was supposed to burgeon after Brexit. But too many uneducated people in the hinterlands voted on emotions, voted on FREEDOM, hating immigrants, ultimately to their detriment. Are we going to let this happen in America? HELL NO!